The Open Thread for October 26, 2018

A suspicious package and device similar to others sent by Republican terrorists to top Democrats and others this week was sent to a building that houses offices for Tribeca Films and Tribeca Grill that Robert De Niro owns, law enforcement and sources tell NBC News New York. And two bombs sent intending to assassinate former Vice President Joe Biden were discovered at a USPS facility in New Castle.

Meanwhile, the White House and all Republicans immediately chose the Abuser’s Defense: It’s your fault we had to kill you. At an Axios event, Newt Gingrich claimed the toxicity of the current political climate is “everyone’s fault,” pointing to social media and the “tribalization” of cable news — specifically CNN — as some of the main factors. It couldn’t be the violent intolerant authoritarian tendencies of the right wing in general and the fascism of Trumpsters in particular.

The Abuser’s Defense theme permeated the White House. Sanders says CNN calls Trump and his supporters “evil” “day-in, day-out,” thus they deserve to all be killed. Sanders attacks CNN for “chos[ing] to attack and divide” in aftermath of bombs, thus they should be killed again. Trump attacks the media, says “Mainstream Media must clean up its act FAST!” Or else my people will kill you.

Fascism at its finest. Hitler would be proud.

Trump has spent the last 18 months deliberately and concertedly stoking civil and racial conflict on as many fronts as possible.

Pious Democratic laments about "divisions" and calls for a nicer "tone" just aren't going to cut it anymore.

Mike Allen: “Pipe bombs sent to prominent Democrats were a wired manifestation of the toxic trajectory of the country’s politics, with President Trump and the media blaming each other for the worst terror-by-mail campaign of the post-9/11 era.”

With President Trump fanning fear ahead of the midterms a dozen days from now, the nation’s political discourse is on track to be even hotter and more volatile during the 2020 campaign than it was when he ran the first time. We are playing with fire — and there are piles of dry kindling stacked throughout America and American politics right now.”

The divisive nature of current politics isn’t a force of nature, it’s a strategy deliberately crafted by plutocrats https://t.co/Zj2FM9i1ld

Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said that Jamal Khashoggi was killed in a planned operation, based on information it received from Turkish investigators in Istanbul, reversing earlier statement that the journalist had died in fistfight, the Washington Post reports.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office “has obtained communications suggesting that a right-wing conspiracy theorist might have had advance knowledge that the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman had been stolen and handed to WikiLeaks,” NBC News reports.

“Mueller’s team has spent months investigating whether the conspiracy theorist, Jerome Corsi, learned before the public did that WikiLeaks had obtained emails hacked by Russian intelligence officers — and whether he passed information about the stolen emails to Donald Trump associate Roger Stone.”

“Mueller’s investigators have reviewed messages to members of the Trump team in which Stone and Corsi seem to take credit for the release of Democratic emails.”

“As Donald Trump held midterm rallies this week in front of thousands, his one-time chief strategist Steve Bannon made his own, rather more low-key return to the campaign trail,” the Guardian reports.

“Bannon appeared in front of 200 people at a firehouse outside Buffalo, New York, ostensibly to campaign for Republicans based in the area. But in a visceral demonstration of just how far Bannon’s stock has fallen since leaving the White House 14 months ago, none of those Republicans running for office turned up.”

Democrats this year are fielding their most diverse roster of candidates ever, precisely as more Rs openly echo Trump's appeals to racial resentment & anxiety. That's a highly volatile combination which could shape US politics for years. My take. https://t.co/n9CHNFYY0U

President Trump denied a “long and boring” report that he often calls friends to gripe or solicit advice on his unsecure iPhones, allowing Chinese spies to listen in and gain valuable insights into how to deal with the U.S. administration, the Washington Post reports.

Said Trump: “The so-called experts on Trump over at the New York Times wrote a long and boring article on my cellphone usage that is so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it. I only use Government Phones, and have only one seldom used government cell phone. Story is soooo wrong!”

Jonathan Swan: “President Trump will hold at least 10 midterms rallies between Oct. 31 and Election Day, with the possibility of bumping it up to two rallies each day in two different states, per three sources familiar with the planning. The White House and Secret Service are still working out the logistics.”

“This is a heavy load of campaigning for a sitting president, but it’s clear that Trump wants to overcome the historical pattern of presidents losing congressional seats in their first midterm election. And he’s viewed as the GOP’s best motivator to energize their base ahead of a tough election.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told Roll Call the Senate is “highly unlikely” to pass a 10 percent tax cut for the middle class even after the midterm elections. Said Hatch: “I’ve seen miracles happen before.”

But he added that it would take “a real monumental effort” to get anything like Trump has proposed to rally Republicans to the polls for the Nov. 6 midterms through the Senate.

.@AndrewGillum: "In Trump's America so many of us have forgotten that we're all in this thing together. On November 6th we have an opportunity to send a loud, unapologetic message that common sense and decency still prevail." pic.twitter.com/mt7WVqAVjh

Michael Avenatti told CBS News that the 2020 Democratic Party nominee for president needs to be a white man. Said Avenatti: “I think it better be a white male. When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight. Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes.”

I hate Michael Avenatti and he can go the fuck back to whatever hell hole he came from and fast.

Defense Secretary James Mattis is expected to sign deployment orders that could send 800 or more troops to the border with Mexico to help border patrol authorities stop a caravan of migrants from Central America moving through Mexico to enter the US, CNN reports.

We have been at divisive political moments before, and we know those often end when leaders emerge who find ways to get along personally even when they are engaged in grand, tectonic political debates. That is one of the underappreciated stories of the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill worked together. Even when they fought it out on tough issues, they fostered an enduring friendship.

For this reason more than any other, we favor U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke for U.S. Senate. The pivotal issue before our country is public leadership, and here we believe O’Rourke’s tone aligns with what is required now. This inclusive and hopeful tone, along with O’Rourke’s approach of starting with shared principles and working toward solutions, offset any policy differences we have with him. Leadership is more than policy, and whether we are addressing the very real challenges before us now turns on our ability to find points of agreement.

Mother Jones: “In early January, Roger Stone, the longtime Republican operative and adviser to Donald Trump, sent a text message to an associate stating that he was actively seeking a presidential pardon for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange—and felt optimistic about his chances.“

“The recipient of the messages was Randy Credico, a New York-based comedian and left-leaning political activist who Stone has identified as his backchannel to WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign—a claim Credico strongly denies.”

The NCCP fact sheet shows that among America’s poor children, 4.2 million are white, 4 million are Latino, 3.6 million are African American, 400,000 are Asian, and 200,000 are American Indian.

Approximately 12,700 veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation New Dawn (OND) were homeless in 2010. The number of young homeless veterans is increasing, but only constitutes 8.8% of the overall homeless veteran population.

And the left is concerned about people coming over the border, Illegally! Let’s take care of the US citizens, First!

Al, Are we taking care of our veterans, like we should?
Are we taking care of the homeless, persons with disabilities? All to the extent that we should. We have able bodied people, who are on the teet of the government.

So, close the border and what the hell do you care, you’re moving to France.

You would resent that, too, Anono. You would resent anyone getting any more help than they do, because that costs money. Most of the able-bodied people who are on government assistance are working. The rest are elderly (can’t work) or kids (can’t work). Which you know.

I am dead tired of your resentment politics. Dead tired. You want to hurt as many people as you possibly can, just because you think that are getting help you don’t get. And yet — if the minimum wage would rise, plenty of these folks would not be getting government assistance. They could get closer to paying market rents, paying for groceries and paying their own Obamacare. If you have made common cause with corporations who want the biggest serf class they can get, then the government is still going to provide some supports. And this is a subsidy to those businesses that they do not need.

You are in the middle of a place where people would absolutely want better treatment of veterans, the elderly, the disabled, the poor. That doesn’t happen because your resentment politics rules the day. So you can consider this problem your fault.

MY FAULT! Ha-Ha. You will spout off, but you’ll censor if it’s on the lines of race. Because, you can’t take it. And you know it’s untrue! This is because of the politics and the money the politicians make. There is a legal way to come into the USA and it’s not they way they are going to try to do it!

Yes, they could live with me, but that’s not what would be best for them. What’s best for them is to settle in communities with others from their homeland, with help from Americans to teach them the language. I don’t speak Spanish, so the only “benefit” of them living with me would be your sense of smug satisfaction at seeing others suffer for their foolishness — that is, you think compassion for refugees is foolishness, and I should have to somehow suffer personally from my endorsement of it.

In short, you don’t see them as people, though your little dodge about pretending to care for “Americans first” is meant to show that you do so care about people; Cassandra has pointed out the inconvenient (for you) fact that every time someone proposes a bill or a program to help the poor you complain about the expense, showing that to be a lie.

The refugees don’t even get lip service. First you repeat unsubstantiated bullshit (how do I know? it’s their daily MO) about them, then you want to use them only as revenge towards pandora and I and anyone else who wants to deal with them compassionately.

We are a nation of 330 million. The caravan, last I read, is about 7,000. Are you seriously proposing that it represents some kind of threat to anyone, let alone “the country”?

The biggest threat to Americans is the number of mentally unbalanced Americans with access to weapons of mass murder. Whenever it’s pointed out that a higher-than-random number of these people hold right-wing views, right-wingers lament the mental health crisis but proceed to do nothing about it.

Please note that there are no insults in this comment. This is a sincere attempt to get you to understand why we find you lacking as a participant of this blog.

“Yes, they should seek asylum, with the asylum for the wacko left wing nuts! Al, France is calling and don’t for get the clowns!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know you love that Apostrophe.”

I’m embarrassed for you. You really don’t know anything. Just right-wing talking points – and yes, the “come here the right way” is a talking point that ignores our asylum laws/procedures. When asked to explain your points you devolve into the nonsensical, childish rant above.

You are an idiot, Anono. These folks are coming here for the same reason your ancestors came here. And this is you, obsessed with people who want something better for themselves while there is right-wing violence on the loose right here in this country.

Will be beyond interesting to see who the mad MAGABomber is if they catch him. Noticed some Republicans are trying to market their claim of a “false flag” and that the Dems are behind it. Sorry, but something about mailing bombs is just so very hard core Trump lover. And hey! How about that stock market?

The difference is that Bernie did not run around in rallies calling out a laundry list of people to target. The difference is that Bernie is not advocating belligerence or violence against anyone. The difference is that Bernie doesn’t set himself and his supporters up to be perpetual victims who are always being put upon by these pesky Democrats. The difference is that Bernie and every Dem disavowed every bit of this. The difference is that no one in the Media worked out a “both sides do it” narrative in order to minimize the severity of the action. The difference is that this guy did not have a van with Bernie stickers and photos of his targets with bullseyes on them. The difference is that this guy wasn’t a fully fledged radicalized terrorist.

Step lightly on this both siderism here. These bombs could have hurt alot of people — not just the targets, but the mail handlers and law enforcement deployed to deal with this. You are free to cheer on the terrorism, the belligerence, the specific need to hurt people demonstrated by MAGAts everywhere. You just won’t do it here.